Sparrow and Spaghetti: Chapter 1 part 2

As I watch others place their bids and wave about their filthy cards, I become more certain. That is Beth.

Turning to my Dad, “Who are we buying?”

“I’m not sure yet.” His voice is cold and angry. He wants to be here even less than I do.

“How ‘bout her?” I say, pointing to Beth.

His entire body tenses and turns towards me. “Are you insane?” he whispers. “She-”

“Dad, that’s Beth. I know it’s her.”

“That was years ago. And besides, she’s a convict. I will not have a damn convict in my house.”

“Yea, but if we don’t, who will? They’re gunna kill her!” His lips tighten. He knows us. He knows the statistics. “Please Dad! Look at her, she is already dying. You can save her!” Come on, Dad, please say yes!

“She’s your responsibility, and if she steps so much as a toe out of line, you’re the one being punished. Do you hear me?”

“Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

My mother watches with fear in her eyes. Her soft red hair frames a tear-streaked face, but she doesn’t say a word.

The hours float by with the giddy expectation of being reunited with my best friend. Level ones and twos go by quickly as people rush to get an innocent child. Threes and fours go even faster as the fear of getting a true criminal sets in.

The boys go first. Dean, the first prisoner, goes to an unwilling family of four. The second boy, Ethan, is taken by a single man in his late twenties who looks like he wants to take the boy’s eyes out with a pair of fish hooks.

Beth is next. Dad just has to put his card up and bang, she is ours! The children wait with wide eyes to see who will take the last captive. Minutes seem to drag by before the auctioneer finally says “We will start the bidding at $500 for a Miss Sparrow.”

No, no, this is Beth, it has to be. We are the only ones left. We have no choice, we have to take her. This is my fault. No, this is Beth!

With a shaking arm, my father raises our card. “Five hundred.”

The man continues for formalities. “We got a five hundred, anyone for six hundred? Five fifty? Sold for five hundred!”

Sparrow turns to look at us with sad eyes. This has to be her. They just got her name wrong. I have never seen another person with those eyes. It can’t not be her.

The other children look from her to us. One little girl, bless her soul, runs from her place with the ones and does her best to try and hug Sparrow. I think they said her name was Holly.

The guard’s face goes from happy to be done, to red and furious. He storms over, lifts the girl with one hand and throws her across the floor. Throughout the theater, women (myself included) gasp and scream with horror.

“MOVE OUT!” he shouts to the children. To us he says, “Please make your way to the back of the building to pick up your new child. If anyone leaves without their child they'll be shot on sight.”